January 2008 in rail transport

This article lists events related to rail transport that occurred in January 2008.

Events

January 1 - January 6

January 2

• – Ganddal Freight Yard, south of Stavanger, opened.^[1]

January 6

• – Officials in China hold groundbreaking ceremonies in Chao'an County, Guangdong Province, to begin construction of a new railway line to connect Xiamen in Fujian Province to Shenzhen, just over 500 kilometers (310 mi). The Xiemen-Shenzhen railway, which will serve both freight and passenger trains, is expected to be completed in 2011, with train speeds expected to reach 200 km/h (124 mph) in regular service.^[2]

January 7 - January 13

January 9

• – Officials in Belgium express their concern that the dismantling of the Vennbahn, which ran across the High Fens (Hautes Fagnes) to the south of Aachen, would require Belgium to cede some of the land that carries the right-of-way to Germany. Some of the line crossed the border between the two nations, but the land under the railway remained Belgian territory, creating five small exclaves of Germany on its western side.^[3]

January 14 - January 20

January 16

• Argentina announces High Speed train to link Buenos Aires with Córdoba 710 km away.^[4]

January 19

• – Agreement is reached for Deutsche Bahn to take over the Laing Rail subsidiary of John Laing plc including English passenger train operator Chiltern Railways.^[5][6]

January 21 - January 27

January 21

• – RZD, the Russian national railway, announces that it has been awarded a contract by the government of Saudi Arabia to build a new line between the King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh and Al Zabirah, a distance of 520 kilometers (320 mi). The contract is valued at $800 million; construction is expected to be completed by 2011. When completed, the entire project is estimated to cost nearly $2 billion.^[7][8]

January 25

• – The first Peking-Hamburg Container-Express freight train arrives in Hamburg, Germany, five days ahead of schedule. The trip was planned to take 20 days from Peking, China, to the European continent, which included transloading the containers for the break-of-gauge points at the Chinese-Mongolian and the Belarus-Polish borders. Officials are hopeful that the trip time can be further reduced to 10 days.^[9]

References